New resolution requires school trips to museums and historical landmarks

The House of Representatives just approved a resolution insisting the Department of Education to command schools to focus on museums and historical sites and landmarks when planning for school field trips.

House Resolution 1757 may soon halt the culture of organizing “educational” excursions to irrelevant and ludicrous institutions and destinations of some private and public schools. (I remember going to this factory and doing nothing there when I was still in grade school. It was a waste of my parents’ money.)

Besides, our museums have been getting facelifts nowadays. New ones have been opening, too, like the much-awaited National Museum of the Natural History, the third building completing National Museum Complex. They’re not boring anymore.

Photo courtesy of Inquirer.net

According to GMA News Online, this resolution follows Section 18, Article XIV of the Constitution ordering the State to encourage and support research studies on the Philippine arts and culture.

“We urge all schools to do these trips to historical sites, landmarks, and museums within the Philippines to ignite the students in their thinking about the rich historical resources preserved in the many places that they may learn,” the resolution’s principal author Lito Atienza said. It’s apt since the itineraries of school trips now include malls, amusement parks, resorts, and the likes, compromising the quality of the tours.

Not that trips to the Enchanted Kingdom are bad. It’s just that it shouldn’t be the priority of the organizers.

Atienza also said that it’s important for the younger generation of Filipinos to immerse themselves in the rich history of the Philippines aside from classroom lectures.